Anatomy of a Terrible Web Host [Infographic]

If you’ve every struggled with running your church website on a terrible web host, you’re not alone. Frustrations with down time or sites crashing whenever the web host does software updates can be debilitating to say the least. A web host is where your website “lives” online, so it’s critical to rely on a company that delivers good service and great uptime.

Facts:

In 2012:
– 52m websites were created for a total of 634m by the end of the year
– Most expensive domain name sold: Investing.com ($2.45m)
– Largest domain name registrar: GoDaddy.com (32.44% market share)
– The average web page became 4% slower to load

What should you expect in a good, reliable web host?

– Excellent tech/customer support
– A proper web host will have tech and support staff who not only speak English and are willing to help, but actually know how to fix your problems
– Tech support is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
– Stuff goes wrong all the time, so your web host should always be available to help
– A near-perfect uptime (time is money)
– A web host’s uptime is a percentage that shows how reliable the site is in terms of server availability
– when your web host experiences technical errors, such as a server crash, your site, and everyone else’s hosted on that server, goes down
– The lower the uptime, the less people can get to your site in any stretch of time
– Even a 99.5% uptime means that, for 50 minutes every week, your site is inaccessible
– Most web hosts have an uptime guarantee between 99-100%
– These uptime guarantees do not include scheduled maintenance downtime
– All the design features you want for the price you’re paying
– Useful software and configuration options
– A control panel with numerous features
– Room for expansion
– E-mail configuration
– Beware promises of “unlimited” bandwidth, disk storage, etc.
– There’s always a limit, but you might have to read the fine print to find it.
– Know what you’re getting yourself into and read reviews before you decide on a host
– Make sure to shop around and compare prices.
– Be suspicious of prices that seem too good to be true.

A terrible web host has:

– Useless Technical/Customer Support
– They simply don’t answer the phone or respond to messages
– They’d “like to help you but just can’t access that information”, or they “just don’t have the ability to change that at this time”
– They use robotic and automatic responses that make getting anything done a nightmare
– Inexplicable Charges
– They increase your subscription fee with no warning or force you to purchase premium accounts
– They make payment cancellations near-impossible and won’t refund
– They continue to charge you after you cancel
– Overpacked servers
– This can cause your site’s pages to load unbearably slowly
– A study in 2009 reported that 40% of internet users will abandon a web page that takes more than 3 seconds to load

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About The Author

Lauren Hunter is an entrepreneur, freelance writer, and founder of ChurchTechToday, where she encourages churches to better use technology to improve every aspect of ministry. She's also a wife to a pretty awesome coach, mom of four great kids, worship leader, and poet.

One thing to realize about “unlimited” host, is that yes there are some that do not impose “any” limit on you, but the server does still have limited resources. If the host is promising you unlimited they are doing the same with, at times, 1,000’s of other users on that server. Unlimited host tend to get abused, and that other user making the most of their unlimited account is going to affect you at some point. I have found that a lot of times small webhost tend to be more responsive than the big guys. Our church uses a company called sitetackle.com they are geared toward churches, are a small host, but very responsive. I’ve hosted with large host like bluehost.com godaddy.com and others and was never happy.

Cool infographic! “Beware of promises that include “unlimited” bandwidth and disk storage” – This is so true. It should be obvious that there is no such thing as unlimited space/bandwidth, but a lot of people don’t seem to get it. If you read the terms of service of ANY web host that promises unlimited hosting, you’ll be able to see what the REAL limits on your account are.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think all “unlimited” web hosts are bad. Take Hostgator for example – I think most people will agree that they are a great host, yet they also advertise unlimited hosting. I’ve also used Bluehost, iPage, Justhost, and a bunch of others. I actually did a video review of iPage here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwcZFAOgdTg

No problem! I only have one video up so far. I’m a fairly shy person so it was a bit challenging making a video, but hopefully it will get easier. It took me a long time and lot of practice, getting used to the sound of my voice, trying to be energetic, learning how to edit – all that fun stuff. It’s crazy how long it takes to make a few minutes of video. Anyway, if you do have time to watch it, I would love your honest feedback on it.

Have you thought about making a YouTube channel for ChurchTechToday? Or maybe you already do and I just missed it?

About ChurchTechToday

ChurchTechToday is the #1 church technology website for pastors, communicators, and leaders. With the goal to provide insight into a variety of topics including social media, websites, worship, media, mobile, and software, ChurchTechToday aims to shed light on how church technology can empower and position churches for impact and growth.